Poll: Most Surprising Non-Trade Prior To The Deadline

Heading into last Monday’s non-waiver deadline, there was no shortage of trade candidates that many expected to be moved (or hoped would be moved). While 20 of the names on MLBTR’s final list of top trade candidates did indeed find new homes, there were still quite a few that stayed put. A quick rundown…

Jeremy Hellickson, Phillies: As an impending free agent that is enjoying a resurgent campaign on a rebuilding team, Hellickson was the prototypical trade candidate. He’s affordable, effective and was seemingly in demand, with as many as a eight teams connected to him at various points throughout deadline season. However, he’s still with the Phils and now looks likelier to end up the recipient of a qualifying offer than to be traded in August.

Jeanmar Gomez, Phillies: Gomez entered the season as a middle reliever that was ticketed more for a multi-inning role than high-leverage spots, but he was placed into the ninth inning by manager Pete Mackanin out of necessity early in the year and hasn’t looked back. Gomez is controllable through 2017, so there’s still time to move him if the Phillies wish (be it this month, in the offseason, or next year), but late July was arguably the highest his trade value has ever been.

Derek Norris, Padres: The Friars reportedly shopped Norris quite heavily in the weeks leading up to the deadline, likely hoping to move him in order to clear a spot on the roster for Austin Hedges. The Rangers, Astros and Brewers were among the teams to show late interest, but Norris ultimately stayed put. He’s controllable through 2018, so the Padres can explore trades for quite some time, but with his replacement absolutely obliterating Triple-A pitching and the Padres aggressively shopping veterans, he seemed a likely candidate to move.

Kurt Suzuki, Twins: A well-timed hot streak for Suzuki looked like a stroke of good fortune that would allow Minnesota to extract some value in exchange for the free-agent-to-be heading into the deadline. Suzuki was quietly one of the league’s hottest hitters in June and July (.333/.362/.533), making his $6MM salary look plenty affordable. He could go in August, but a trade is obviously more difficult now.

Jim Johnson, Braves: Atlanta has been willing to trade virtually everyone on its roster other than Freddie Freeman and Julio Teheran, and Johnson was a natural candidate to be dealt. He’s on a cheap one-year deal and has pitched brilliantly since returning from a DL stint in early June. His name was all over the rumor mill heading into last Monday’s deadline, but he’s still in Atlanta a week later. A waiver deal can’t be ruled out, but the Braves will be faced with a much more limited market.

Zack Cozart, Reds: Cozart looked to be on his way to Seattle early last Monday with the deadline just hours away, but the medical hangups in the Reds’ Jay Bruce trade with the Mets reportedly slowed their ability to finalize the details on the Cozart deal with the Mariners. Cozart is controlled through 2017 and could be shopped again this winter, but an August deal looks unlikely since he’s a lock to get claimed — probably by a team with higher waiver priority than the Mariners. The Reds know they’ll be able to market him to more clubs and drive up the price this offseason.

Yasiel Puig, Dodgers: There’s some hindsight in play here, as Puig looked like a trade candidate as the deadline loomed but looks more likely to be done as a member of the Dodgers a week later now that they’ve added a new right fielder (Josh Reddick) and demoted Puig to Triple-A. Knowing how much Los Angeles had soured on Puig, it’s fairly surprising that no agreement was reached prior to the non-waiver deadline.

Danny Valencia, Athletics: Despite the fact that Valencia has been one of Oakland’s most productive hitters this year, the A’s called up prospect Ryon Healy and gave him Valencia’s everyday job at third base. Valencia is bouncing around the diamond now, but with just one year of club control remaining beyond the 2016 season, he looked like a very solid bet to be on the move following his displacement at the hot corner.

Jake Odorizzi, Rays: Odorizzi and teammate Matt Moore were rumored to be drawing interest from seemingly half the league prior to the deadline, but it was Moore who ended up moving. Odorizzi can be controlled through 2019, so there was no rush to move him, and the Rays ultimately elected to move just one of their young arms.

Yunel Escobar, Angels: What’s perhaps most surprising about Escobar, who is hitting well on a fourth-place team and has a reasonable club option for the 2017 season, is that his name scarcely surfaced on the rumor circuit. Escobar seemed like an obvious candidate based on his productivity and contract, but perhaps questions about his reputation and the Angels’ desire to compete in 2017 made trade chatter minimal.

Chris Sale, White Sox: I never considered a Sale trade to be all that likely, but there was plenty of speculation about it, and many were captivated by the idea of one of the game’s best pitchers (and one of the game’s best contracts) changing hands. His clubhouse tirade a week prior to the deadline only fueled speculation about his availability.

All that said, it’s time for everyone to weigh in (link to poll for Trade Rumors app users)…

Comments

Can we have an option for anyone on the White Sox (never mind Sale). Rick Hahn sits there and bemoans the mediocrity of his org 2-3 weeks before the deadline (probably should not have done that near to the deadline in the first place) and then does nothing.. not ever firing a manager that should have been fired about 2 months ago.

I’m still convinced that Hahn is 99% hamstrung in this organization with Williams and Reinsdorf. Were he actually given the keys to the car he could probably do great things. Right now he’s only given permission to make public statements about the team and sit in on PR media sessions.

When Hahn took over in 2012, Papa Kenny handed him the keys to a 1994 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight with a transmission that was about to go. Hahn could have traded it in for some cash towards something newer, more reliable, and with better technology but Papa Kenny had too many good memories in the backseat of that Olds and wanted to hang on to it without spending the necessary money to keep it road-worthy.

I don’t think you’d want to do that to Cleveland’s pitchers. Napoli has a bad hip which took him out from behind the plate to begin with, and he wasn’t any good back there anyway. Santana was a bad catcher.

Sale to the cardinals this offseason. We need a true ace. Give them Reyes and any four other prospects excluding maybe Bader and Weaver. Sale is a true talent, one of the top two or three starters in the game and those are never available.

And there it would stop. While Chris Sale is awesome, trading that much cost controlled talent is not. That’s why players like sale rarely, if ever, actually get traded. Acquisition cost outweighs the benefit for the acquiring team.

I doubt Hedges would have been promoted even if Norris was dealt. He loses a year of control if he is on the roster more than 17 days this season. Had Norris been dealt, I think the Padres would have promoted Sanchez to backup Bethancourt. I think that due to this, dealing Norris during the season was far less urgent than MLBTR has made it seem. Comments from Indians about high acquisition cost of Norris seems to back up that Padres were in no hurry to deal him.

Which really points to how much the Padres wet the bed last year with Hedges’ service time.

The club really better hope that the Chihuahuas play through the PCL championship series to give themselves some almost-plausible cover for not bringing Hedges up until Sept 17.

It will also be worth watching to see whether they hold off on promoting Renfroe until late in September in an effort to leave their options open for messing with his service time with a three-week heel-cooling period in Triple-A next spring to get an extra year of control over him.

Agreed. Was between Hellickson and Valencia for me. I’m not really sure how 456 people are shocked that Puig wasn’t traded. As a starter on a contending team under team control, he’s not exactly a prime trade candidate (at least he wasn’t on July 31). I’d be surprised to see him moved in August or September also. Offseason seems more likely

I think Norris is a big one for me. Thought for sure he would go to Cleveland after their Lucroy trade fell through. Braun is another one I thought would be traded. I think we may see a lot of trades this off season though, more than normal.

The QO status of these guys plays a big part in it. Hellickson isn’t necessarily surprising to me — clearly the Phillies did not receive an offer better than what they felt they could get with the draft pick.

Somebody like Jim Johnson, on the other hand, isn’t getting a QO and therefore I find that a far more questionable decision.

Right!? However, it is tough to say never, ever, As the Phillies pointed out, sometimes you want veterans to stick around to teach your players and/or not put too much of toll on your pitching staff with a player’s absence.

I disagree slightly. If you are a GM who accepts a crappy offer or two and doesn’t walk away, you develop a reputation as weak. What happens next time that GM presses for a better deal, the opposition will wait for them to buckle. Need to occasionally walk away from the table to be good negotiator.

Except that you are hurting your team. Keeping a player so that you don’t look “weak” only to receive a worse/no return on that player is just stupid and bad business.

If you have an asset that teams want, they will bid for it. Getting some sort of stigma for taking low offers instead of no return isn’t gonna get you some reputation. Being a moron like the dbacks front office, that may get you a reputation

Yeah I think the Phils will and should ultimately go to the QO on Hellickson. But my original comment was referring to like, the A’s not trading Marc Rzepczynski, the Diamondbacks not trading Daniel Hudson or as Ted astutely pointed out, the Braves not trading Jim Johnson.

Just because they can get away with doing that on a rental player doesn’t mean they can get away with it on a controllable player. And as chesterarthur pointed out, there are 28 other teams out there and this team still has to outbid all of them.

Most surprised that the Phillies did not move Gomez. In particular, the market for relievers was very inflated, and established early on with the Chapman trade. Philadelphia has little short or long term need for him, and there is no guarantee he maintains this level of production.

Unlike most of the other bullpen arms moved, I don’t think teams think highly of Gomez. He’s not a hard thrower, doesn’t strike a lot of hitters out, and projects more as a middle reliever. Guys like that usually don’t have much trade value around the league. Do I think a contender could use him as a 6th/7th inning guy? Sure, but they wouldn’t pay much for that. Closers, setup men, and LOOGYs get sold for big, not a closer who would be a middle relief guy on good teams.

That’s a fair point, and I definitely won’t argue that Gomez would or should be in the back of a contending bullpen. But look at a guy like Will Smith, who got traded for the #63 overall prospect, Phil Bickford, and a very serviceable catcher in Andrew Susac. Smith doesn’t throw all that much harder than Gomez, and while he does get more swings and misses, his results are pretty similar, all told.

Smith definitely has a higher ceiling than Gomez and more years of control, but it’s not like he’s a lights-out bullpen arm that really warranted his price on the market. I think the Phillies could have received a very nice return for him just to play in that 6th/7th inning spot on a contending team in need.

Yeah I don’t think Will Smith is anything too special either but he’s also a lefty and we know their value on the market. No chance the Phillies would have gotten a top-100 prospect for Gomez. If I was a contender, I probably would have given up maybe my 10th-20th best prospect depending on the depth of my system.

The guy they were going to trade in the minors, Luis Gohara, is now 6-1 with a 1.74 ERA, only 45 hits in 57 innings pitched, 70 strikeouts in 57 innings pitched, only 17 total base on balls, and a 1.09 WHIP.

Oh, and he’s 6’3″, 225, and throws left-handed. And just turned 20 years old.

I’m not sure what the heck the M’s were smoking, but this guy seems to be on his way to Studville.

Is anyone wondering why Marcus Semien’s name wasn’t mentioned at the trade deadline? Yes his average is .235 this year, and he’s known for having troubles defensively, but his OBP is about .300, he has minimized his mistakes from 35 last year to 11 so far this year, his WAR is 2.1, he’s hitting 23 HRs with 54 RBIs, he is 25 yrs old, his salary is $510,000. I think he would be a great platoon option or even an upgrade for a starting position. I think the Indians could have picked him up for an average prospect to be a bench player instead of claiming Michael Martinez.